I heard that Wayne was REALLY the pilot.............
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Mom: Jogger hit by plane was excited to head home
An Experimental Lancair IV-P airplane lies beached on Hilton Head Island, S.C., Tuesday, the day after its pilot made an emergency landing. The pilot, Edward Smith, and his passenger survived the crash, but a man jogging on the beach was killed when he was struck by the plane.
By Russ Bynum
Updated: 03.16.10
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — A father of two in town on business was jogging on the beach and listening to his iPod when he was hit from behind and killed by a small plane making an emergency landing, officials said Tuesday.
Robert Gary Jones, 38, of Woodstock, Ga., died instantly Monday evening when he was hit by the single-engine plane, which had lost its propeller, said Beaufort County Coroner Ed Allen. The pilot’s vision was blocked by oil on the windshield.
The coroner said Jones apparently did not see or hear the plane, which was “basically gliding.”
His mother, Pauline Jones, said Tuesday that he was in Hilton Head for work but was supposed to fly home to suburban Atlanta on Wednesday for his daughter’s third birthday.
Her son was often out of town for his job with pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, where he had been a salesman since 1997.
“Any time he traveled, I would worry myself to death about him,” said his mother, who lives outside Tampa, Fla., where he grew up. “I’d call and say, ’Where are you, where are you?’”
Federal Aviation Administration records show the experimental Lancair IV-P plane that hit Robert Jones was registered to Edward I. Smith of Chesapeake, Va.
Smith was on the beach with his plane Tuesday and confirmed he was the pilot. He said he did not want to talk about the crash and offered few details.
“I’ve got a lot of issues going on right now. I’ve got a plane that’s all torn up. And I’ve got a young man that I killed,” he said.
Authorities said there was also a passenger on board but did not identify him or her.
The plane started leaking oil at about 13,000 feet and tried originally to make it to Hilton Head Airport, said fire and rescue spokeswoman Joheida Fister.
